2008 WSoP Post 6 - On coolers and plain old bad luck
First things first – sorry for the lack of updates after Saturday. I changed hotels and was out of range for the wireless service I had been using, and was not about to pay $24.99 a day to use the hotel’s network. As a result, this post is going to be abnormally long.
Now, into a little “Catch-Up”. After my great run at the Wynn on Friday night and into Saturday, I checked out of one hotel Early Saturday morning and killed time in the Harrah’s Poker Room for about five hours until I could check into the second hotel. I had a good run at a $1/$2 table (I really hate playing $1/$2, because there simply isn’t enough money on the table), picking up about $300 in the time there. Unfortunately, I had to cab it back to hotel #2 where I had stored my bags, check in, and then cab it back to the Strip.
Sadly, for this entire trip, I probably managed to spend $300 on cabs and monorail rides alone. Every cab trip was between $12 and $15, and the monorail is $5 each way but doesn’t run 24/7.
Anyway, for the rest of Saturday night I played various $2/$5 games at the Wynn. That’s where the definition of “cooler” comes in…
I picked up a bunch of big hands throughout the course of the night, occasionally getting paid and occasionally dropping chips to someone else. The biggest hand that missed at my first table was pretty ugly.
I made the mistake of pushing someone all-in when they had a monster and I had a monster…draw. I flopped an open-ended straight flush draw to the 7 of spades against a strong player who had top set of jacks. I had 17 outs, missed them all. Sure, I was a slight underdog, but with 17 outs and two cards to come I was really expecting to catch.
Wouldn’t be the last time that would happen on the trip.
Later in the night, on the third table after everything started breaking, I hit the first cooler of the weekend.
I left a table to run to the bathroom just as the dealers were changing. As I came back, the new dealer was just starting to shuffle, leading me to yell out “I’m in! Deal me in!” Standard play – poker players hate to miss a hand, just in case they pick up a monster.
I did. Unfortunately.
I looked down to find Pocket Kings in the Big Blind. After there was a raise to $25 and three callers, I re-raised to $110. I only got one caller – the initial raiser.
On a rainbow flop of K-3-A, I thought I was made. I still had about $1300 in front of me, about $25 more than the other guy did. I bet out about $125, trying to see just how big his Ace was.
He raised to $300. Oh man – his Ace must be huge with that type of value bet! Maybe even A-K! I’m about to get paid huge, and walk off the table at 7am after another great night at the Wynn!
I go in the tank, thinking forever about whether or not he’ll call an all-in bet. I finally decided he wouldn’t, and just called.
The turn was a blank (a six, I think, without matching a suit on board), so I checked to him. He bet out $450ish, leaving about $500 behind. I looked over and said “OK, let’s just get it all in there now”.
He beat me into the pot… and showed Aces. Definition of a “cooler” right there, both of us flopping three of a kind. Left with only $25, I shoved all-in blind on the next hand and got 3 callers, somehow hitting two pairs with J-4 offsuit and staying alive… I survived for about another 15 minutes at the table before busting out and going back to my hotel to sleep it off.
After getting about 6 hours of sleep, I decided to head over to Caesar’s on Sunday night/Monday morning. I had planned to play in another Mega Stack tournament that afternoon, but since I didn’t get to sleep until 9am and the tourney began at noon, it wasn’t really an option.
Since I hadn’t played a cash game there yet, playing only in the Mega Stack tournament a few nights earlier, I was pretty eager to see how people were playing.
I ran into some of the people I had played in the tournament with, but overall it was mostly new people. I also ran into one of the luckiest players I’ve ever seen, and one of the best cash game players I’ve ever played against. The result was the same for both – I lost.
Finally, after about eight hours our table broke down and I moved to a new seat at a new table. I was moving with about $1400 in chips and bills, just slightly down from my second $1500 buy-in for the night. (I limit myself to two buy-ins for a night - whatever those buy-ins might be – when I’m playing cash games. Tournaments are a different story.)
Less than half an hour into the move, I got the biggest monster I’ve ever had, and it turned out to be one of the biggest coolers I’ve ever given out to someone else.
On the button, I found Jacks. We were only playing 7-handed (plus it was about 4am), so any pair was pretty much gold. However, I’d gotten in trouble three times at the first table re-raising with Jacks and Tens even when I was in position, so I decided to simply call any raise, or if I was the first raiser I would make a small push that I could get away from if someone came over the top.
There was a raise to $25, and I just called. The flop came up 4-9-J with 2 clubs, and I knew I was made. We both checked the flop, and when the turn brought the fourth Jack I actually thought I had gotten screwed. Now, any bet from me into someone with Aces, Kings or Queens would signal at least one Jack in my hand. Somehow, my opponent led out with a $60 bet. I just called.
The river landed with another 9, and I was nearly certain there was no way I could get paid. I mean… who’s going to bet into someone who basically just declared that they were holding at least one Jack to have a full house?
Yet somehow, he bet to me. $175. I went into the tank… then I raised to $425, figuring he’d go away unless he thought I was bluffing and wanted to come over the top. He went into the tank... then said out loud “Maybe we’re chopping it?” Trying to play off like he thought we both had a Jacks over 9’s full house. Uh, no. I have four Jacks. I doubt you have one as well.
Then he went all-in for another $800 on top of my bet. I immediately called, announcing “I have quads”.
His response? “So do I…. oh shit.” He flipped over 9-9 to my J-J.
Now, here’s where it gets really sick. Caesar’s Palace is part of the Harrah’s family of casinos. Harrah’s has a bad beat jackpot, which at the time of this hand required you to have quad 9’s or better beaten with a pair of 9’s in the hole. The bad beat jackpot stood at around $130,000; 30% of that goes to the person that loses the hand, 20% goes to the winner of the hand, and the remaining 50% is distributed throughout the Harrah’s family of poker rooms to anyone on a cash game table. Meaning this hand was about to net the quad 9’s about $40k, and I would not only win the $2300 in the pot (plus a high-hand jackpot), but another $25k from the jackpot. I was, needless to say, a little excited.
Only problem? Caesar’s isn’t part of the bad beat jackpot. They never signed on to the idea with the other Harrah’s casinos, because they didn’t want to take another $1 out of every hand from the players. Meaning the loser got nothing for his troubles, and although I won the hand and got $100 for the “High Hand”, the other $25k was not to be.
If the hand had happened across the street at Harrah’s (or the Imperial Palace, where it actually was hit about three hours later), we would have gotten paid. In Caesar’s, we both got an “Atta Boy”, and play continued.
I left the table about two hours later, down about $200 total for the night. Not bad considering how the night started.
Finally, Monday night into Tuesday morning. Um… ouch.
After I woke up Monday afternoon (my sleep schedule was so screwed up it’s not even funny. And now back on East Coast time, its even worse. I’m blogging at 2AM because I didn’t get out of bed until 3 yesterday afternoon), I headed back to Harrah’s to catch the 3:30 afternoon tournament – a $60 buy-in with a $40 rebuy. Basically, just a good way to kill time and maybe make a couple hundred bucks. I ended up as the third alternate and had to wait until the third blind level to get a seat. When I finally got in, I had 4500 chips with blinds at 100/200, so I was reduced to either stealing a lot of blinds or just shoving all-in and praying.
I chose the former, stealing three blinds in the first revolution alone with aggressive over bets on small pots. I even managed to steal a couple of calls, since my table was extremely tight except for one hyper-aggressive kid.
Naturally, it was him that I ran into to end my day.
I finally limped into a pot, under the gun with pocket 9’s. The aggressive kid was in the small blind and only called the extra hundred to complete the blind, leading us to a 6-handed flop.
After the board hit 8-3-3 with three different suits, the blinds checked to me. Hoping nobody had a three in the hole (or worse yet, pocket 8’s), I bet out 1300 chips into a 1200 chip pot. Since the aggressive kid hadn’t taken a stab to try and represent a hand from the blind, I thought I might have been safe.
Everyone folded to him, and he pushed all-in. The big blind folded, and I had a decision to make. I didn’t believe he hit the three, and if he though I was stealing with big cards he might only have an eight, meaning my pocket 9’s were good. I thought for awhile, and then finally called.
He turned over 8-3 off suit (Whoops!) and I was done. I should have stopped there, or just killed time for three hours until the 8pm tournament at Harrah’s.
Instead, I returned to Caesar’s $2/$5 game trying to pick up the $1400 I was down for the trip, or at least make a dent in the losses. I did pretty well at the table, winning a big pot on only my second hand when I turned two pairs over my opponent’s flopped top two (Kings and 3’s over 7’s and 8’s), picking up about $300 in the process. Then our table broke and I moved to a new table. After floundering in place with a cold run of cards, a new $5/$10 table opened up directly next to me with three people I’d already been playing with, people I had good reads on. I decided to move.
For the first two hours, it was a great idea. With higher stakes I bought in for a higher amount to keep up with some of the massive stacks at the table; one guy bought in for $5000, another for $4500. I figured $2500 would be strong enough.
I caught another cooler when I flopped a set of Queens against a guy I knew to be a huge bluffer. I check called him all the way to the river, when he bet out $350 into a $300 pot with a rainbow board of 6-Q-4-3-2. I took awhile, then finally called as he flipped over 8-5 off-suit for a rivered straight, and nothing else. After a smirk, I flipped over my hand and paid him off.
Three hands later, down about $500, I picked up A-8 of diamonds in the small blind. There was a raise to $40 and I called along with three other players (putting $200 in the pot preflop. God I love $5/$10). Before the dealer turned over the first three cards, I actually thought to myself “this would be a great time to flop a monster”.
How about a flop of 7d-10d-9d, giving me the nut flush and an open-ended straight flush draw? That qualifies as a monster.
I checked. The big blind fired out $200 and got one caller (yikes!) I immediately put one of them on either Kd-10x or J-Q of diamonds, so I just called. Let’s face it – if I lost to a better flush – a straight flush – then it just wasn’t going to be my day.
The turn was the King of clubs (phew!), and again I checked. The big blind fired out $700 into a $600 pot. The other player folded, obviously chasing something or maybe thinking A-10 wasn’t going to be any good. The action came around to me, and I went into the tank. I wasn’t sure what the guy had, but I was pretty certain he had also flopped a flush, maybe even with the JQ of diamonds for his own straight flush draw. But I couldn’t be certain he didn’t have a set of 9’s or 10’s leaving him with a handful of outs on a full house.
I chose to end the action right there, re-raising him all-in for my last $1900-ish and immediately went into “freeze” mode; I put the iPod in on high volume, and picked a certain chip in the pot to lock a stare on. After about thirty seconds, the other guy started counting out his bills – I couldn’t believe he was really going to pay me off! I was pretty certain he didn’t have a flush at this point, otherwise he would have called immediately. Now I had him on either three of a kind – probably Kings on the turn with the King of diamonds – or else he had hit something like 8-9 or 9-10 on the flop or maybe the Kd-10x I had thought of earlier, and just couldn’t get away from it.
He waited for another thirty seconds or so – at this point, I was almost biting my lower lip trying to act calm – then finally he looked at me and said “I hope you’re not stealing this pot from me… I’ve got a huge hand, but I think you’ve got me beat.” He flipped over 9-10 for top two pair on the flop, and folded without paying me. I didn’t show.
I wasn’t unhappy to rake in a huge pot - $1050 not counting the $250 I’d invested myself – but I wish he would have made the call. Of course, with the way my luck turned later, he probably would have made the full house on the river.
After getting fairly lucky later in the night to double myself up to about $3400 in chips (I caught a 5-outter after I made a semi-bluff against a player I didn’t believe had anything – he actually had the second nut straight, and I was left to my draw. Luckily, I hit), I went on a run of coolers to end all coolers.
The “big bluffer” – the 8-5 that cracked a set of Queens – got involved with me and a third guy on another huge pot.
I picked up A-6 off suit out of position and limped. There was a small raise from the button to $30, and both the bluffer (in the big blind) and I called.
The flop hit Jh-6c-Ah (another jackpot… sort of) and the bluffer and I checked to the initial raiser on the button. He fired out $110 into the $95 pot trying to take it down right there. The bluffer came over the top for $400. It came to me, and I immediately assumed he was on a draw, maybe a straight with the big cards or a flush with the 6 so he had a reason to stay in the pot.
In any case, I wasn’t looking for any more action. $600 in the pot was enough for me, so I re-raised to $950. The button insta-folded, and the bluffer went into the tank. Now I was certain he had absolutely nothing, and was deciding how much of his money he wanted to risk. He had about $1700 when the hand started, and had already committed $500 to the pot.
Finally, after about two minutes, he announced “call” but pushed his remaining $1200 in chips into the pot. I checked with the dealer to see which move would be counted – the verbal call or the action of the $300+ raise (which I would have called instantly). Since both actions happened together, the dealer said the verbal bet was the binding one (the correct call, by the way), and we went to the turn.
There was a blank card (2 of spades, I think) and the bluffer checked (?!?). I immediately went all-in. He thought for a second, and then called. I flipped over my Aces up, announcing to the table that if my hand held up I would be leaving immediately (the bluffer had done exactly the same thing a few hours earlier, hitting a monster hand then immediately leaving to play in a tournament. He returned only after he busted out). The bluffer flipped over 8-3 of hearts (?!?!?!) for only an 8-high flush draw I would have expected to see at least some kind of straight draw to go with it. Half the table either gasped or started laughing… until a third heart hit the river. Cooler #1.
The very next hand, as the bluffer was trying to explain how he had made a couple of great calls with his 8-high draw, I picked up Jh-10d. I’ve mentioned here before how J-10 is one of my favorite hands, because there are so many way to make a hand with it.
There was no raise from anyone until the bluffer in the small blind. He bumped the pot to $50, and there were three callers including me. The flop came up Jd-8d-9d, giving me top pair with another open-ended straight flush draw. As long as nobody had already flopped a set or a flush or straight higher than the one I could make, I should have been a huge favorite.
The action checked to me, and I fired out $175 into the $200 pot. The bluffer pulled his usual move, check-raising to $400 and chasing out the other two players. I immediately went all-in, trying to show the strength of my hand, for my remaining $1100-ish. The bluffer actually thought for a couple seconds, then called the bet and showed a set of 8’s. First time he didn’t call all-in on nothing but a draw of some sort.
Essentially, I had 17 cards to make a straight or flush on either the turn or the river, plus the hand could have theoretically run out with the 2 remaining Jacks, or two of the three remaining 10’s or 9’s, or any combination of those. He had to dodge a ridiculous number of cards – in fact, he was only about a 53% - 45% favorite with about a 2% chance of a tie.
Of course, I missed all of them, with the board running out with a couple of small black cards that completely missed my hand, and I was suddenly forced to re-buy onto the table. Cooler #2.
On the very next hand, I picked up pocket Kings. Naturally. I made a big raise ($10 to $70) pre-flop and got only one caller – the bluffer. Yup. The flop hit with three small cards - two clubs – and I fired out $180 to him on the button. He called. Of course he did. The turn brought the Ace of clubs, and now I went on the defensive. I checked to him, since I was fairly certain he had hit either the flush or the Ace. He bet $400 and I insta-mucked. He just grinned and showed 3-5 of clubs for the flush. Nice call pre-flop. Cooler #3.
At this point, I needed a break and went for a half hour walk. I e-mailed my buddy Jay – the guest of honor of the last Vegas trip – and tried to cool myself off. Finally, I returned to the table to find I’d missed a blind. I posted the required $15 and got a hand.
Pocket Aces. Yup. No lie, I almost mucked them pre-flop rather than risk my luck getting in the way again.
Instead, I re-raised from a $60 bet to $230 and went into freeze mode. The bluffer looked at me and asked “How much did you buy back in for?” I took out the iPod and responded “Same as before – twenty-five”. Now I was pretty certain he had a real hand this time, maybe even Kings but didn’t want to put the pressure on pre-flop for that much money, since he probably thought I would have instantly shoved all-in (which I would have). He just called my bet, and so did the initial raiser.
The flop came out Kh-4c-Ah – Bingo! – and the initial raiser checked to me. I bet out $550 into the $700 pot. The bluffer took a minute, then shoved all-in (putting me all-in for about $2250 with the stone cold nuts at the time – top set). The first raiser went away, and I insta-called thinking he had Kings or A-K.
I showed my AAA, he showed Jh-10h for a gut-shot royal flush draw, although any heart or Queen would have made his hand.
After the 7h fell on the turn (guh), I was left calling for a board pair that never fell. Cooler #4.
Four consecutive hands, four consecutive ridiculously bad beats. One idiot getting rich off of my cold run.
I walked away shaking my head, trying to figure out how the hell I could possibly run that cold for that long. In the end, I just returned to my hotel room to pack up for the morning flight on Tuesday.
I actually thought about it for awhile – I’ve been on the wrong end of five consecutive suckouts in pots of over $3500 when I’ve put my money in with the best of it going back to the last week in May, not counting the one-outer in the WSOP tournament last Monday. I have only gotten lucky myself once on a large pot, the $3400 straight I hit on the semi-bluff Monday night before the cooler run began.
I’m not actually sure what all this means. Maybe I’m just running unlucky, since I am getting my money in when I’m ahead in the hand. Or maybe it’s a sign that I need to be more aggressive earlier on in hands to try to end the action before it is profitable enough for other players to chase their draws.
Either way, I’m back from Vegas for a little while. I haven’t decided if I’m going to return for a weekend in about 13 days – winning the Harrah’s tournament also got me entry into a freeroll there with about $100k going to the top-10 winners and only 100-150 players expected to compete. Probably worth my time. Otherwise, I’ll continue grinding it out at Foxwoods for the next few months until October, when Caesar’s is running another tournament series.
Besides, I really shouldn’t be in Boston if the Sox are in the series. Boston teams only seem to win titles when I’m out of town.
Lata.Labels: Bad Luck, Gambling, Las Vegas, poker, Tournament, World Series, WSOP
2008 WSoP Post 5 - Thank God for consistency
There are certain things that you can count on for every trip to Las Vegas. You’re going to be hot. You’re going to be dehydrated. You’re probably going to drink. You’re probably going to gamble. And when it’s all said and done, barring catastrophe you’ll probably be sad to leave.
For poker players, there are a few other things to bank on. For example – you’re going to give and take a handful of bad beats. You’re probably going to play against a ton of local pros who can see you coming before you even walk in the building.
And if you’re in town for a weekend, you can absolutely count on finding a ton of rich European kids dumping money at the Wynn poker room.
Sometimes, it’s nice to know these things in advance.
After killing a couple hours laying around the hotel room today, taking a shower and watching some Euro Cup soccer on ESPN (no, seriously. Mid-day TV sucks), I headed out to the monorail and back to center strip. Just like Thursday, I walked through the Harrah’s poker room on my way to the Mirage room just looking for a decent $2/$5 cash game or a reasonable tournament. After finding absolutely nothing (it’s ridiculous how bad the cash games are in this city right now. There are three rooms – TOTAL – that I’ve found with more than one consistent $2/$5 table running; Bellagio, Caesar’s, Wynn. That’s it) I grabbed a cab ride to the Wynn and hoped to catch people busting out of their 2pm tournament and looking to hit a cash game.
I had no idea.
It might have taken an hour and a half to finally get a seat, but it was worth it. I walked into one of the biggest action, biggest chip moving tables I’ve ever sat on. And sitting across from me were co-table captains – both from Croatia and still recovering from the soccer match with Turkey earlier in the day – and both with stacks of over $3000.
Important note: The Wynn is one of a handful of poker rooms that does not cap the buy-ins for no-limit cash games. Most rooms would have capped me at $500 max buy-in on a $2/$5 game, meaning I would have been at a distinct disadvantage against deep, hyper-aggressive stacks. But with my ability to put down $500 in chips and another ten bills behind my stack, I was not to be trifled with unless the hand was really worth it.
Less than an hour into the table, I had taken more than half of one of the big stacks away (once with a bluff, once with a monster that got paid) and was beginning to chip into the second captain’s remaining stack. The first kid eventually went on meg-tilt and dumped off the rest of his stack on a draw against someone that had turned a full house…oops.
I finally did the rest of my damage against captain #2 with a ridiculously good call, if I do say so myself. On a board of Qs-4s-As-Kc-8h, I called a $300 bet (into an $800 pot) on the river with A7 of diamonds. He disgustedly flipped over Ks-7h and immediately started berating me for making the call. I just smiled and stacked his chips.
So tonight is an early night – turning in at 10pm so I can be up and ready to check out of one hotel and into the other tomorrow morning. Three more days to keep adding to the bankroll.
Lata.Labels: Gambling, Las Vegas, poker, Tournament, World Series, WSOP
2008 WSoP Post 4 - Another tournament, another cash…
Weird couple of days out here. I actually was having so much fun playing cards that I forgot to eat, anything, from Tuesday at 8pm through Thursday at about 6pm. That's saying something.
I had planned to enter today’s WSoP Event #36 over at the Rio, and even moreso after a fairly successful day of cash games at the Wynn for about 12 hours yesterday. But when I got up today, I just wasn’t in the mood to struggle through a lousy blinds structure and a field of probably about 1500+ people (it actually ended up at 2,447, although only 187 survived the day… yikes)
Instead, I trekked over to the Center Strip stop on the Vegas Monorail; (quick aside – the map saying that the Wynn is at the “Convention Center” stop on the monorail – that’s a blatant lie. The Wynn, and everything else on the Strip near the Wynn is a solid 20-25 minute walk from the monorail stop. Something to be noted, as I made the walk yesterday at noon… in 106 degree weather. Warrants mentioning) and walked into the Harrah’s poker room trying to catch the 11am tourney signup. Missed the last signup by 10 minutes. Figures.
Rather than killing time at the only cash game in the room – a four-handed $1/$2, guh – I walked across the street to the Mirage to see if they had anything spread. Nope. Almost completely dead.
I was contemplating the $10 cab ride to the Wynn for more cash games, when I remembered I was next to Caesar’s and their fantastic poker room. Worth the 10-minute walk.
As I got into the poker room, I saw a sign for the Caesar’s Mega-Stack Tournament Series. I had about 12 minutes left to register, so I jumped on it. 368 players, top 36 paid. Ridiculously top-heavy payouts (first place takes $22k tonight, or just over 30% of the pool).
I was a card rack for the first eight hours of the tournament, running out to over 60k in chips when the average stack was around 32k. And I was still in third place at my table. I eliminated three players, chasing down Queens with my AQ, then picking up overpairs to players who had already shoved all-in twice.
Interestingly enough, I wasn’t playing like normal. I tried something completely different in this tourney, and it was working beautifully until I went completely card dead. Really novel concept for a tournament player. Ready for it?
I was patient.
Not just like, wait for a couple suited cards, or a couple big cards, or any ace. I was patient like “I’m not playing anything less than A-10 unless I’m stealing the blinds”.
Damned if it didn’t work. Of course, it helped that for about an hour I was averaging 2 pairs and a big ace every 10-15 hands, meaning I could scoop plenty of pots and blinds.
I also completely altered my betting strategy, opening pots with very big raises – often almost uncallable without a huge hand – choosing to take down almost every pot preflop if possible. In fact, I only got action four times when I raised preflop – three all-ins and two people who didn’t believe me when I raised from 800 to 4800 from middle position (I had Pocket Kings and took the pot after the flop).
Of course, we know all about hot cards, and how fast they can cool off. After breaking from my table, I walked into my first hand (in the big blind) at a new table and picked up pocket Aces. There was a raise from 1600k to 6k and a call to me before I had even taken my chips out of their racks. I re-raised to 24,000 and got no callers. It was the last hand I saw in a very long time.
I eventually got blinded down to about 20,000 chips from my high point of 76k, then caught a lucky double-up when I cracked Queens with Q-10 offsuit, catching a river flush after flopping an open-ended straight draw. But my night came to an end an hour later when I picked up pocket Jacks, shoved all-in from 8k to my final 41k and got an insta-re-raise all-in from a pretty tight player. AK suited. I didn’t bother watching the board, I figured the table would tell me what happened.
He flopped an Ace, and I busted out in 22nd place, earning a total of $175 profit for 11 hours of playing. Chalk it up as a wasted day.
Guess I’ll spend tomorrow in cash games over at the Wynn again, since I can’t find a steady $2/$5 no-limit game anywhere else.
Lata.
Labels: Gambling, Las Vegas, poker, Tournament, World Series, WSOP
2008 WSoP Post 3 - My first Las Vegas tournament win!
No, I don’t have any new bracelets to show off when I get back home. Yet. But I did finally take down a tournament in Las Vegas – in fact, this is the first time I’ve ever cashed in a tournament in this city.
Sadly, it was only a $60 tournament with rebuys at the Harrah’s Casino. The payout was nice, recovering some of the losses from yesterday. And even more sadly, it took three tournament entries today to earn the win, meaning I more or less broke even for the day.
At least the tournament win comes with an entry into a freeroll tournament in early July here. Guess now I have to win enough in a big tourney to enter the WSoP Main Event.
Other thoughts for the day:
n Obviously, story #1 is the Celtics’ return to the top of the mountain. As it was happening, I found myself thinking that it was almost too easy – there was never a doubt in my mind that the C’s would win Game 6. But by 40 points? Really?
n About 10 minutes before tip-off I was in the Harrah’s poker room and thought about running to the sports book to get a parlay on the money line, point spread and the over. I decided against it, but the guy sitting next to me thought it was a good bet and dropped $50 on it. I’m sure he’s thanking me right about now.
n How good was this Celtics team? Just look at all the records they set this postseason: Biggest win in a Finals clincher. Biggest comeback in a Finals game. Most home wins in a single postseason. Most steals in a Finals game. Most three pointers in a Finals game (Ray Allen tied the record). Most road losses in a postseason (that one’s not so good, but consider they set that record and still won the title. First team to win a title while playing 25 or more playoff games. I mean… wow.
n The fact that Bartolo Colon was injured swinging a bat tells me that, no matter how good he’s been pitching, he’s just not durable enough at his current build to be a reliable pitcher. I wish the Red Sox had put weight clauses into his contract, a la Curt Schilling.
n Kid at my table earlier tonight – “I fucking hate Boston… you guys just don’t lose anymore. It’s no fun for the rest of us.” That kept a smile on my face for awhile, until someone else reminded me about 17-14.
n By far, the worst part about the manner in which I busted out of yesterday’s tournament… There were 1012 total entrants in the tournament – when I busted out after only 4 hours, there were about 475 left and an average chip stack of around 6000. By the end of the day, there were only 73 players left (top 108 got paid) with an average stack of about 70000. And at the end of today’s action, with the final table set for tomorrow, it only took 183,000 chips to still be alive. Had my hand held up, I would have had about 32,000 chips already. Can you say “Dominant tournament chip leader”? Guh… I need to move past this. It really hurts my head.
n I’m still up in the air about playing in Event #36 on Thursday or Event #39 on Saturday. I’m actually enjoying playing low limit cash games and daily tourneys at other casinos. Maybe I’ll stick with that for awhile. Gonna be awful hard to earn the $10k I need for the Main Event in two weeks that way though…
n And finally, I’m still keeping myself off of the blackjack and craps tables – my only foray into non-poker gaming is a promotional slot play I have here in my hotel. Probably use that tomorrow morning. Can’t wait to get to my next hotel on Saturday, where they’re giving me like $300 in cash and free table play. I like that idea.
Back again at some point tomorrow (whatever day tomorrow happens to be).
Lata.Labels: Gambling, Las Vegas, poker, Tournament, World Series, WSOP
2008 WSoP Post 2 - One-outters and other nonsense...
Sometimes, you can’t make this shit up.
I’m not going to lead with my bad beat story. I’m instead going to acknowledge the fact that I put two bad beats on two good players early on in my turn at today’s 6-Handed No Limit tournament at the WSOP. With starting stacks of 5000, I took about 3800 off of a player only five hands in when I turned a set of 9’s to bust his A-10 after a 10 hit the flop. He busted out shortly after, steaming from the loss and choosing the wrong time to push all in with K-Q suited (he was up against pocket kings, not mine. Sadly.)
Later, I went runner-runner two-pair and runner-runner lousy straight on one player in back to back hands, who decided that he would no longer play hands that I was betting out, whether or not he thought I had anything.
Then, it happened.
Late in level 4 (100-200 blinds, 25 antes), I was in the small blind. I had about 14,000 chips in front of me, covering everyone else at the table and well above the tournament average of about 6500. There’s a raise from the first position to 950. A fold, then an all-in shove for about 3800. And another all-in shove from the button for just over 13,000. I looked down to find two red Aces.
Jackpot.
I was already counting the chips in play, figuring that if I held up I would have around 32,000 chips, more than enough to have the tournament chip lead. I shoved all-in.
The big blind folded and the initial raiser flipped over his hand – KQ suited in clubs, announcing that he couldn’t possibly be good. He was right.
The first all-in (for 3800) had pocket red Queens. The second (for 13000+) had pocket red Kings. And I had them both drawing dead to the king or queen of spades, or running straight cards since I had their flushes covered. Keep in mind – this is a six-handed tournament! Two pairs on one hand is rare. Three – the top three – is obscene, even moreso considering the other hand in play. And what happened next… well, there isn’t really even a word for it in my vocabulary.
The flop fell 4h-Ks-4c rainbow, and I was suddenly looking at being crippled to about 800 chips. Talk about penthouse to outhouse. His Kings held up, and I was left to shove on the next hand and pray. It went unanswered as I actually flopped top 2 pair only to be behind to a flopped set.
Somehow, I staggered away from the tournament area and found my way to the cash games. After many, many hours of plugging away and trying to gain some traction, the table loosened up and I started picking up hands.
We had an implied straddle bet for seven of the eight players on the table – the eighth didn’t believe in it. My standard straddle raise at this table was from $10 to either $45 or $55, depending how many callers were already involved. I had done this on three consecutive hands, each time with nothing worse than AQ (and showing each hand at showdown).
On the button, I looked at Q-J suited in hearts. There were two straddle callers, so I bumped the pot to $55. And got 5 callers. Hmmmm…
On a flop of 4-J-Q all spades, There was a bet of $125 and a call. I immediately shoved all-in for over $500… and got two callers. 3-5 suited spades, 6-8 suited spades. Impressive.
After limping away from that table, I decided to call it a night. I had originally planned to play in tomorrow’s tournament (Event #32), but I’m not feeling up to it. I’ll probably play in an event on Thursday instead and try to recover some of my losses.
Back tomorrow or Wednesday.
Lata.
Labels: Gambling, Las Vegas, Lucky Bastard, poker, World Series
2008 WSoP Post 1 - So far so good…
It’s amazing – three years ago, I was so much more anxious and less confident about playing in a World Series of Poker event than I am today. Back in 2005, I couldn’t sleep consistently the night before I was scheduled to play, grabbing short 30 minute naps throughout the night. I doubt that was what doomed me to a 9-hour stay in a 10-day tournament, but I’m sure it didn’t help.
Last night, after passing out at about 9:30 local time here in Vegas (though I’d been up since 4am EST), I didn’t really wake up until about 7am this morning, and even then I was able to roll over and pass out again for another couple hours. This is a good sign – I’m relaxed. I’m ready. And I’m confident as all hell.
Which means I’ll probably last 10 hours this time. J
A couple of quick thoughts from my first day/night in Vegas this time around:
- Stupid me… I scheduled a nice 8am non-stop flight from Boston to Vegas thinking I’d be able to get a four or five hour nap on the flight, plus it wasn’t all that expensive. Then I got to Logan International Airport early enough to catch a 7am direct flight (for the low low fee of $25) and decided to grab it. Naturally, we hit more turbulence than I’ve ever hit on my way into Vegas, and I slept for about 30 minutes. Nice.
- I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing when, at 9pm last night a carful of elderly British tourists stopped in a parking lot I was walking through asking for directions to the “Tuscany Suites” – an off-strip hotel – and I was able to direct them there with no problems. I can’t direct people around the City of Boston without using T-stops, and even then I’m spotty at best. But Las Vegas? Pfff…kid stuff.
- Not surprisingly, there aren’t many (if any) of the “recognizable” pros walking around the Strip yet. I’m sure there will be some in my field later today, since last year a pro won this event (Hoyt Corkins, winning his first WSoP bracelet), but most of them aren’t going to show up until the Main Event on July 3, or else they’re only playing in the $5000+ events throughout the entire World Series.
- Tiger Woods is ridiculous. The putt on the 18th (72nd) hole of the US Open yesterday looked like it had absolutely no chance to drop… until it dropped to force today’s playoff. Rocco Mediate was a +300 to Tiger’s -380 on the board last night… I almost talked myself into a bet on Rocco. Almost.
- The Celtics had absolutely no business being as close as they were throughout last night’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Which makes me pretty confident that they’re not losing a game at home, and the NBA Season should be over on Tuesday night. Also, I’ve said it plenty of times, but the WEEI Webstream is a Godsend when travelling.
- Watched the game from the MGM poker room/sports book last night. Pretty interesting – every basket, every foul, pretty much every play drew a huge response from about ½ of the crowd, either way. With LA just four hours West of here there were decidedly more Lakers fans than Celtics, but the Boston fans were just a bit louder. Shockingly.
- I’ve done a great job of staying away from all non-poker-related activities so far (i.e. I’m not wasting time at a blackjack or craps table). Although I did manage to talk myself into sitting at a 2-4 limit game last night at the MGM, justifying it by the fact that there was a big-screen plasma directly in front of me, and it was a pretty cheap table with open seating as opposed to waiting in line. Meh. Nothing major to report.
Finally, here’s my strategy for today’s event (Event #31): Be patient, stay focused, play my cards, and trust my instincts. I’ll report back tomorrow on my progress.
Lata.
Labels: Gambling, Las Vegas, poker, World Series, WSOP
Quick Update...
OK, so I know this isn't my usual posting time (1:30am on a Saturday morning... no, I'm not drunk), but I figured I'd give you all the head's up.
Sunday morning I'm heading to Las Vegas for my second crack at the World Seris of Poker, this time playing in a handful of smaller events rather than the Main Event, as I did
back in 2005.
With the new format this year, as well as wonderful technological advances, you can all follow along online if you so choose. There are running updates of the tournaments all over the
WSoP main website, and
ESPN360 is running live broadcasts of at least the final tables, and probably some in-tourney action as well. You know, just in case you want to follow along and cheer for your favorite pseudo sports-blogger. I'm currently planning to play in at least Event #31 (6-handed No Limit Hold'Em) and Event #36 (plain ol' No Limit Hold 'Em).
Anyway, I will be in Sin City for about 10 days. I'm planning to bring my laptop with me so I can put my own thoughts on the action as I wrote
a couple weeks back (meaning there will be a handful of poker/gambling related posts over the next two weeks), though I'm not sure how many times I'll actually get online.
And when it's all said and done, if all goes according to plan, the Celtics will have won the NBA Title and I'll have two or three shiny new bracelets to show off at my next party.
Labels: Gambling, Las Vegas, poker, Tournament, World Series, WSOP
NBA Finals Preview
OK, I’ve refrained from writing anything at all about the NBA during the playoffs for two reasons. First, I’m kind of superstitious, and didn’t want to risk the chance of a Celtics/Lakers Finals. Yes, I realize it’s stupid. But it’s easier to sit back and wait a couple weeks (months) for the first three rounds to run their course before writing it all up. And second, let’s face it – I don’t write about the NBA a lot. I’ve written in this space numerous times that aside from the Celtics, I usually can’t stand watching NBA Basketball. Too often in recent years an NBA game becomes a 1-on-1 showdown with eight other guys standing around watching. Even worse, with the timeouts and intentional fouling at the end of games, most times you can spend 35 minutes watching the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
But since everything has fallen into place, and NBA fans are about to be rewarded with another Celtics/Lakers Finals (not to mention a Finals where it’s not almost a foregone conclusion which team is going to win), I figure it’s safe to come out of hiding and write a Finals preview post. And if I inadvertently jinx the whole thing, leading to a Lakers sweep in which they win all four by no less than fifteen points, well then I apologize in advance.
For the first time in recent memory, both teams are supremely balanced. Both teams have a “goto” scorer (Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce), both teams have a big man with exceptional offensive skills (KG, Pau Gasol), and both teams have the “third banana” type of guy who can either light it up or be stone cold on any give night (Lamar Odom, Ray Allen).
Obviously, Kobe Bryant is the single most dominant player in this series. He can single-handedly take over a game. He is the best shooter on the court most nights, and when his shot isn’t falling he has finally learned to trust is teammates enough to distribute the ball until he can find his shot. There is nobody on the Celtics that can guard him one-on-one, and most likely not even a double-team will shut him down completely. And considering how much I despise him, you can’t even imagine how hard it was to write those words.
With the addition of Gasol and the emergence of Odom as a legitimate third scorer, the Lakers are no longer one dimensional. In the past, it was as simple as double-teaming Kobe (or perhaps putting a cute 19-year old girl in the row behind the Lakers bench) and you could completely take him off his game. But now with other options, it’s no longer a one man team.
The counter to that argument is that there isn’t one player on the Lakers that can guard KG straight up. Gasol will most likely be guarding the Kendrick Perkins/Big Baby Davis/Leon Powe combo under the hoop, meaning Lamar Odom will be responsible for Kevin Garnett on most nights. If Garnett doesn’t average 20 points, 8 boards and probably 4-5 assists when he gets the double-team throughout the series, I’ll be stunned.
The final thing to keep in mind here is history and desire. Kobe has three rings. Phil Jackson has nine. It’s not like they’ve never been here before. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Doc Rivers are all looking for their first ring to validate careers. KG is already a Hall-of-Fame caliber player; a ring simply puts him in on the first ballot. Pierce is a borderline HoF’er, and a ring would only add to his case. And Doc is desperately in need of a ring to validate his entire existence as an NBA coach. If they can’t get one with this team, they’re never going to get one. Celtics in 7 (naturally).
Labels: 2007-2008, Celtics, Finals, Lakers, NBA, Preview
